Finding Nemo

We were celebrating our daughter's birthday over the weekend. She chose to enjoy the day with her friends in the water park. While playing in the water park, I accidently pulled the lever on one of the taps and a jet of cold water soaked me and my mind almost immediately. My very lovely daughters offered a facial for me to help revitalize my facial tissues later that day. The water and the facial left me thinking of something that had always amused me and troubled me at the same time. Years ago, when I was a little kid, I visited Sri Shravanabelagola – a small city in Karnataka, close to both Mysore and Bangalore. The city is a famous pilgrimage center in Jainism for the statue of Gomateswara Bahubali. Every twelve years, the giant statue is bathed in water, milk, sugarcane juice, saffron paste and is sprinkled with powders of vermillion, sandalwood and turmeric. Later, I visited Jatipura – one of the many villages around Mathura – a place associated with the advent of SriNath Ji a

Now that monsoon has entered India and is all set to advance further, I thought it apt to share my twisted ode to rains. Please note that this in no sense a subliming of their importance. Hope you shall get the message as you go through the words - मुझे  बारिशों से प्रेम है यह प्रेम  सन्देश लाती हैं। तन -मन का मैल धोती हैं दुःख दूर कर सुख लाती हैं। धरा के ह्रदय ज्वाला शांत करती हैं धरतीपुत्रों को जीवन दान देती हैं। सर्वत्र हरियाली का सन्देश देती हैं  और प्रेमी इन मेघदूतों को देख प्रसन्न हो उठते हैं। एक रोज बारिश आई थी निर्मम निरंतर बारिश। सर्वत्र अँधेरा, सर्वत्र नीर देखने से लगता मानो यहीं है क्षीर। सब कुछ बहा ले गयी वह बारिश पेड़, पौधे, ढोर, डंगर सब।  उन्हें भी जो बारिश का स्वागत  करते थे, नाच गा कर मन में उमंग भरते थे। यह बारिश सब बहा ले गयी, तुम्हें भी।  अब मुझे बारिशों से घृणा है। इसका काम सिर्फ बहाना है। इसमें भीगने का जो रस है , वह मात्र एक छलावा है। इसके चले जाने पर हाथ कुछ नहीं आता है, कपड़ों के साथ मन भी निचुड़ जाता है। रह जाती है  टीस, एक मिलन की,

The Upanishads are a collection of Vedic texts, also known as Vedanta and are considered to contain the revealed truths about the ultimate reality – brahman and the character and the form of human salvation – moksha. While more than 200 Upanishads are known, the first dozen are considered to be the oldest and the most important, thus referred to as principal or mukhya Upanishads. Ever guessed when and how were they formed? So the story dates back to Sri Rama's father Dasharatha. Dasharatha had a daughter – Shanta – elder to Sri Rama. When the kingdom of Anga faced severe draught the king Rompada approached Dashratha and offered to adopt Shanta and marry her off to Sage Rishyashringa. This was to break Rishyashringa's celibacy and his father Vibhandaka's urge to control nature. Vibhandaka had realized the cycle of life and how the new life was created through the seed. He realized that no living beings had control over shedding their seed except humans. He understood that th

During the twelve years of exile, the Pandavas and their wife Draupadi roamed around different forests and came in contact with many sages. The sages helped them by telling stories of their ancestors and of importance that had far reaching impact on their thoughts. In a way, the sages were helping the Pandavas grow as leaders. In their early years, with all the education and fun, the Pandavas had grown to be good warriors, administrators and providers. The exile years are considered as the bridge between the princes to the common man that gave birth to great rulers. However, the sages were not the only ones to have taught the Pandavas. In the period of exile, Arjuna once met a forest dweller Kirata, who challenged Arjuna to show his skill and claim the prize. Despite using all his skills, Arjuna could not come close to Kirata. Finally, Arjuna realized that he was no ordinary human being and prays the Kirata to reveal his true being. Upon surrendering himself, Arjuna then realizes the K

Mahabharata has many stories and many heroes. Some of the stories have been narrated to us from ages and are imbibed into our beliefs. However, there are a few stories that have lost the attention even though they have carried enormous amount of knowledge and meaning for all of us. One such story is of the greatest warrior Karna. Karna’s archery skills were as illustrious as his teacher Parashurama and other students of his teacher – Bhishma and Dronacharya. Having learnt the art of war from Parashurama himself, he was second to none. His skills were noted even by Bhishma and Sri Krishna. He was acknowledged as undefeatable and surpassed Arjuna on many counts except one – Sri Krishna’s closeness. Along with being a great warrior he was a great man of principles too. Devotion and principles were just as great assets to himself as his weapons. It was his devotion to his friendship that made him stand in the court of Hastinapur when Draupadi was disrobed. An act, that Karna regretted th

I was listening to the radio this morning and was stuck with a nice quote – “I hate you since I do not know you.” Quite true, isn’t it? In the last few weeks, I read Rajiv Malhotra’s “Being Different” and listened to my all-time favorite Dr Devdutt Pattnaik. While their story telling is a little different, the central idea remains the same – “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” and the measure of ugliness or beautifulness actually represents the mental state of the observer not the subject itself. Love, Hope, Fear, Hate are all the different attributes of human emotions that come into play when different people come in contact. Different mixes of these emotions help one formulate their stand during the interaction. This is the same concept as commonly referred to as “Stereotyping” or “Forming Opinions”. The interesting point however is which emotion is stronger? Like it or not the first default reaction of a human towards anything is of Fear. The fear of the unknown

On the occassion of Mother's Day, I would like to share a few lines that I read long ago. These words are powerful and meaningful. so HANDLE WITH CARE माओं को  मखमल पे रखो  झूला दो  फूलों पे  वे हैं आज  मगर होंगी कल ना  सोचो तब  क्या क्या  खो जाएगा  जीवन से ? सोचो ना ! फिर सोचो